INDIA bloc to launch yatra against voter list ‘anomalies'
The decision was taken at a meeting of the INDIA bloc partners held here on Wednesday.
All important leaders of the INDIA bloc were present at the meeting, but Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani was conspicuous by his absense. This came amid Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) president and minister Santosh Kumar Suman extending an invite to Sahani to join the NDA. A VIP representative, however, attended the meeting held at the residence of
Tejashwi Prasad Yadav
, INDIA bloc coordination committee's chairman.
Talking to reporters, Tejashwi said they would launch the yatra shortly after Raksha Bandhan, and it would be attended by all the top leaders of the opposition alliance. "We will go to the masses over their issues and hold rallies in all the nine divisions," Tejashwi said, adding Congress MP Rahul Gandhi would also join their yatra.
"BJP is stealing the votes of the poor, and we will tell the masses how their names are being deliberately deleted from the voter list," Tejashwi said.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Swelling and internal bleeding in the brain, help this baby
Donate For Health
Donate Now
Undo
Alleging a huge financial scam under the NDA regime, he said the CAG in its report stated that the Bihar govt failed to submit a utilisation certificate for projects worth around Rs 80,000 crore.
"Rs 80,000 crore is not a small amount. Why has the govt failed to give details of expenditures? That means a big financial scam has taken place," Tejashwi alleged, adding, next month is "August Kranti" and they would go to the masses over these issues.
Replying to a query, he said the prominent investigation agencies such as the CBI, ED, and Income Tax might go slow in this case for "obvious reasons, but this is taxpayers' money".
State Congress president Rajesh Kumar, while lending his full support to the issues raised by Tejashwi, said the INDIA bloc would together launch the battle for the "rights of the people".
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
a few seconds ago
- Indian Express
Punjab Vigilance conducts searches at real estate baron Ranjit Singh Gill's residence, hours after he joined BJP
Less than 12 hours after prominent Punjab real estate developer Ranjit Singh Gill was inducted into the BJP by Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau conducted a search at his Sector 2 residence in Chandigarh on Saturday. The search was ongoing till this report was filed. No one was being allowed to enter or leave the premises. Gill is the founder of the Gillco Group, a real estate development company based in Mohali, Punjab, and was the 'halka in-charge' of Kharar for the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) till he quit the party in July. He was widely tipped to join Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), especially after the sitting Kharar MLA Anmol Gagan Maan announced her resignation and decision to quit politics on July 19. However, she took back her resignation the very next day. Gill is a real estate baron and agrarian entrepreneur who began his career in real estate in Ropar in 1990 before moving to Kharar, where he founded the Gillco Group. The company is known for developing luxury residential, commercial, entertainment, and educational projects, including the notable Gillco Valley township, one of the largest in Mohali, spread over nearly 200 acres. Beyond his business ventures, Gill has been politically active. He was a close confidant of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and served as the party's general secretary. He contested the Punjab Assembly elections from Kharar in 2017 and 2022 on an SAD ticket but was unsuccessful, finishing third in 2017 and losing to Mann in 2022. Gill's assets were reported to be worth Rs 74 crore in 2022, a significant increase from Rs 29 crore in 2017, as per his election affidavit. He faced an income tax raid in December 2022 at his Gillco Valley office and residences in Chandigarh, alongside associates, with cash recovered during the operation. Additionally, an FIR was registered against him in 2021 under the Disaster Management Act for gathering more than 10 people against the district commissioner's prohibitory orders in force.
Indian Express
a few seconds ago
- Indian Express
Even before Trump's ‘penalty' threat, Indian refiners began cutting down on Russian oil imports
Amid increasing pressure on India from the US and other Western powers over the past couple of months, Indian refiners — led by public sector players — began cutting down on Russian oil imports, much before US President Donald Trump's announcement earlier this week of an unspecified tariff 'penalty' on New Delhi for its defence and energy imports from Moscow. Latest vessel tracking data shows that July deliveries of Russian crude — which would have been contracted May or early June — to Indian refiners fell significantly. Industry and trade sources also indicated that Indian public sector refiners have, for the time being, halted future contracting of Russian oil, the mainstay of India's oil imports for the better part of the past three years. Trump has now said that he 'heard' that India will no longer be buying oil from Russia, calling it a 'good step', but also added that he is not sure if the information is 'right or not'. 'Well, I understand India no longer is going to be buying oil from Russia. That's what I heard. I don't know if that's right or not, but that's a good step. We'll see what happens,' Trump told reporters in the US on Friday. Meanwhile, India — the world's third-largest consumer of crude oil with an import dependency level of over 85 per cent — continues to maintain that its oil purchases are commercial decisions. 'We take decisions based on the price at which oil is available in the international market and depending on the global situation at that time,' Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Friday in response to a question on whether Indian refiners have stopped buying Russian oil over the past few days. Industry insiders, experts, and trade sources indicate that renewed pressure and threats from the US and Europe over the past few weeks have cast a shadow on India's Russian oil imports, and could mark the beginning of Indian refiners pivoting away from Moscow's oil. So far, India had successfully managed to walk 'the fine line between energy security and geopolitical pressure', but its options now appeared limited, one expert said, adding that Indian refiners 'must now plan not just for commercial shifts, but for systemic geopolitical realignment'. Deliberations are on between the government and other stakeholders — primarily refiners — on managing the situation and assessing the choices on the table for India, sources said. With a pre-emptive reduction in Russian oil imports, some bit of signaling has already taken place. The next steps would most likely be decided on how the India-US dynamic evolves, and more importantly, whether or not Trump decides to further harden the American stance and rhetoric against Russia. Any breakthrough between the White House and Kremlin over the Russia-Ukraine war would most likely ease the pressure on buyers of Russian crude. This renewed pressure from the West — forcing Russia's top trade partners to cut down on imports from the country — are aimed at forcing the Kremlin's hand into ending the war in Ukraine. For Trump, who wants the three-year-old Russia-Ukraine war to end within days, this is an opportune time to pressurise countries like India and China over their Russian imports, given the sensitive trade negotiations that these countries are holding with the US. India's Russian oil imports in July were at 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), down 24 per cent from June levels, and 23.5 per cent from volumes delivered in July of last year, according to latest tanker data from global real-time data and analytics provider Kpler. The share of Russian crude in India's oil import basket in July contracted notably to around 33.8 per cent from July's 44.5 per cent. While the drop in oil imports from Russia is evidently more pronounced among Indian state-owned refiners, likely reflecting heightened compliance sensitivity amid mounting risks, private sector refiners—who account for over half of Russian crude imports, have also reduced exposure to Moscow's oil. The reduction in import volumes from Russia in July was offset by higher crude deliveries from other suppliers — mainly Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the US, Nigeria, and Kuwait — all of which expanded their share in India's oil imports vis-à-vis June levels. With much of the West shunning Russian crude following the country's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia began offering discounts on its oil to willing buyers. Indian refiners were quick to avail the opportunity, leading to Russia — earlier a peripheral supplier of oil to India — emerging as India's biggest source of crude, displacing the traditional West Asian suppliers. While the discounts have varied over time, Russian oil flows to India largely remained robust despite Western pressure and limited sanctions on Russia's oil trading ecosystem. But the appears to be changing now, and fast. 'On one side, the EU's (European Union's) sanctions — effective from January 2026 — ban imports of refined products derived from Russian-origin crude, forcing Indian refiners to segment crude intake and product flows. On the other hand, the US tariff threat raises the possibility of secondary sanctions that would directly hit the shipping, insurance, and financing lifelines underpinning India's Russian oil trade. Together, these measures sharply curtail India's crude procurement flexibility, raise compliance risk, and introduce significant cost uncertainty…(it) represents a double whammy for Indian refiners,' said Sumit Ritloia, Lead Research Analyst, Refining & Modeling at Kpler. Before this week's tariff announcement by Trump mentioning a 'penalty' on India, India's significant Russian oil imports were being subjected to a more aggressive stance by Western powers for a few weeks. Trump himself had had threatened 'biting' secondary tariffs of 100 per cent on buyers of Russian exports, and the European Union last month announced a sanctions package, widely seen as the most comprehensive effort yet by the EU to restrict Russia's revenue stream, placing a ban on import of fuels into Europe if made from Russian oil in third countries like India, and also sanctioning Indian refiner Nayara Energy, in which Russian oil giant Rosneft holds 49.13 per cent stake. According to Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, the massive market share of Russian crude in India's oil imports doesn't mean that India is dependent on Russia for oil, and other suppliers can quickly come in to replace Russian volumes if there is any major disruption. 'I don't feel any pressure in my mind. India has diversified the sources of supply… I'm not worried at all. If something happens, we'll deal with it…there is sufficient supply available,' Puri had said at an event earlier in July. He added that India in recent years has expanded its crude sourcing slate from 27 countries to around 40 countries, and enough oil was available globally for India to buy and ensure energy security. If India indeed decides to shift away from Russian crude, industry insiders and experts expect New Delhi to negotiate a potential wind-down period for reducing supplies, as replacing the massive volumes of Russian oil supply overnight is impossible, according to industry insiders. It would take at least three-four months to substantially cut down on imports and shift to other suppliers — mainly in West Asia, but also in Africa, and even the US and Latin America. Loss of discounted Russian barrels would certainly push up the relative cost of imports by a few dollars a barrel, which in turn would inflate India's oil import bill by billions of dollars on an annualised basis. Additionally, if global oil prices rise in the eventuality of most of Russian oil going off the market, the hit for India would be amplified further. 'Replacing Russian crude isn't plug-and-play…it is no easy feat—logistically daunting, economically painful, and geopolitically fraught. Supply substitution may be feasible on paper, but it remains fraught in practice. Gulf barrels come with pricing rigidity, African grades add freight volatility, and Latin American flows face availability constraints,' said Ritolia. India's traditional crude suppliers in West Asia — chiefly Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE — would be the logical fall-back, but Indian refiners will have to grapple with significant constraints as they reduce Russian oil imports. A lot of the crude from West Asia comes through term contracts, unlike spot purchases of Russian crude, which may force Indian refiners to commit to higher annual offtake of West Asian oil, which is more rigidly priced compared to discounted Russian crude. Also, a number of Indian refineries that had gotten attuned to processing Russian crude in large volumes may see an impact on their product yield and refinery configurations due to crude quality mismatch. India is also expected to sustain its ongoing efforts to diversify its sources of crude oil. Geopolitical shifts, freight economics, and refinery economics are expected to continue shaping India's crude sourcing decisions and diversification strategy. Sukalp Sharma is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express and writes on a host of subjects and sectors, notably energy and aviation. He has over 13 years of experience in journalism with a body of work spanning areas like politics, development, equity markets, corporates, trade, and economic policy. He considers himself an above-average photographer, which goes well with his love for travel. ... Read More
Hans India
30 minutes ago
- Hans India
Confusion over actual financial burden on Bengal exchequer for Durga Puja grants
Confusion is brewing within the West Bengal State Secretariat over the exact financial burden on the state exchequer following Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's recent announcement to enhance the annual grant for community Durga Puja committees this year. The confusion stems from the exact number of community Durga Puja committees that would be entitled to the eligible state-sponsored grants, with contradictory figures surfacing. While the 'Forum for Durgotsav', an umbrella body of the different community Durga Puja committees in West Bengal, has pegged the number at 43,000, the Chief Minister, in her announcement earlier this week, stated that a total of 45,000 community Durga Puja committees would receive the grant this year. The Chief Minister quoted this figure while she announced that the annual dole amount to each Puja committee this year would be increased to Rs 1.10 lakh from Rs 85,000 last year. If the figure of beneficiary Puja Committees this year is 45,000, as quoted by the Chief Minister herself, the total direct pay-out from the state exchequer will be Rs 495 crore, a 35 per cent rise over the previous year's figure of Rs 365.5 crore. Even if the figure for the number of beneficiary Puja Committees this year is 43,000, as per the records of 'Forum for Durgotsav', the total direct pay-out from the state exchequer will be Rs 473 crore, a 29 per cent rise over the previous year's Rs 365.5 crore. Insiders from the state finance department pointed out that while the figures mentioned above would be just the direct payout from the state exchequer, the actual expenditure would be much more, considering the massive 80 per cent electricity concessions provided to beneficiary Puja committees in addition to the annual dole. Opposition parties have already lashed out at the state government over this enhanced Puja dole hike. The leader of opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Thursday, appealed to the community Durga Puja Committees in West Bengal not to accept the annual dole from the government. He urged them to do so in memory of the young woman doctor who was raped and murdered last August on the premises of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, and in solidarity with lakhs of unemployed youth in the state, whose aspirations, he alleged, have been crushed by flawed government policies. Adhikari also announced full support to those community Durga Puja committees that choose to refuse the state government's dole offer this year.
